Boxer Dog

Boxer Dog

The Boxer’s ancestors were the German Bullenbeisser (a dog that descended from Mastiffs) and the Bulldog. The Bullenbeisser had been used as a hunting dog for centuries to hunt bear, wild boar, and deer. Its task was to catch and hold the prey until hunters arrived. Over time, Bullenbeissers lost their jobs on estates and began to be used by farmers and butchers to guard and drive cattle.

The Boxer we know today was developed in the late 19th century. A Munich man named Georg Alt bred a brindle-colored female Bullenbeisser named Flora with a local dog of unknown origin. In the litter was a fawn-and-white male that was named Lechner’s Box. This is believed to be the start of the line that would become the Boxer we know today.Lechner’s Box was bred to his dam, Flora, and one of the litter was a female called Alt’s Schecken. She was registered as a Bierboxer or Modern Bullenbeiser. Schecken was then bred to an English Bulldog named Tom to produce a dog named Flocki, who became the first Boxer to be entered in the German Stud Book after winning at a Munich show that had a special event for Boxers.

Flocki’s sister, a white female, was even more influential when she was mated with Piccolo von Angertor, a grandson of Lechner’s Box. One of her pups was a white female named Meta von der Passage, who is considered to be the mother of the Boxer breed even though photographs of her show that she bore little resemblance to the modern Boxer.